Bridges: Buttress Baby Buttress! (Part 1)

Saturday, 4th April 2026

I shall conclude the series on the topic of bridges with a post today and a final one tomorrow.

Burning a bridge presupposes the existence of that bridge to begin with. It was built by people who came before us.  For example, schools such as ACS/MGS and SJI/CHIJ were established in Singapore because Methodist missionaries and Catholic priests/nuns wanted to build bridges to reach the unreached via educational institutions.  The numerous Methodist and Catholic churches we see across our nation today stand as living testimonies of the bridges built by those from England and the Vatican.

In the last post, I ended with the question, "If cannot burn, then how?"

Let's look at the picture below which I found on the Internet.  What do you see that is common to all 18 bridges?

They all have structures that hold them firmly grounded.

Even suspension bridges like the famous Golden Gate Bridge in California  are not "suspended" in the true sense of the word.  

It has structures called "piers" that are piled deep into the bed of the ocean.  

There are also "anchorages" and "abutments" at each end of the bridge to secure it onto land.

To keep consistent with the words "build" and "burn" starting with the letter B, I shall refer to these support structures (ie. piers, anchorages, abutments, etc) collectively as "buttresses".

I have recently become very fascinated with buttresses because God has placed something very deep inside my heart, through a series of 7 seemingly unrelated, yet related incidents -- because they all concern the people called Methodists.  

Incident One

It all started about a month ago when I was having a conversation with James Tham, who stays just around the corner from me, and attends PLMC.  His family was invited to our daughter's wedding and they are in the extreme left in the photo below.

Out of the blue, he suddenly told me, "Bro, your grandchildren will be running around in Sunday School in PLMC."

Now, that REALLY got me thinking. It was no longer just about me being a 4th-generation Methodist escapee worshipping in NewCre, full-stop, end of story.  It was also going to be about a 5th-generation PLMCian (ie. my daughter) and potential 6th-generation PLMCians (ie. my future grandchildren).

Incident Two

And then a week later, I was on an hour long video call with Rev Richard Tan, an ex-PLMC pastor who has a similar background to me of discovering the grace gospel, yet remaining somewhat rough around the edges. As a member-on-trial ("MOT"), he stood up to the then-TRAC President Rev Dr Isaac Lim.  That took real guts, and made my standing up to Peter Koh and Barnabas Chong pale in comparison.

Rev Richard resides in Perth.  On 26 January 2024, he was so kind to come over to pray for my late dad when he was in Singapore. That's the 3 of us in the photo on the right.

Anyway, during the course of conversation with Rev Richard, we spoke, inter alia, about how Rev Reuben Ng had so boldly invited Ps Lian to guest-preach at Toa Payoh Methodist Church on 26 April 2015 when he was her PIC.  Yet Kow Shih Ming had conveniently left out inviting any pastor from NewCre leading up to PLMC's 90th anniversary in 2022.

Rev Richard concluded, "At that point in time, Rev Reuben had "nothing to lose" as the PIC of a relatively-small church. He never expected that one fine day he would rise to become TRAC President!"

It then dawned upon me that the bridge between the Methodist Churches in Singapore and New Creation Church has been rather precarious and requires much fortification.  After Rev Reuben was posted to TPMC as her PIC in 2012, he played that crucial role of buttressing the bridge in 2015 when he invited Ps Lian to preach, and God rewarded him by promoting him to District Superintendent in 2018, PIC of Faith Methodist in 2021, and finally to TRAC President in 2024.  (Anyone else notice God's fingerprints via the 3-year gaps separating these 5 significant events -- 2012, 2015, 2018, 2021, 2024?)

Incident Three

I used to have a regular Wednesday morning golf game at the New Course of Singapore Island Country Club with 3 octogenarians, but that stopped after they one by one pulled out due to health reasons.  I still golf every Thursday afternoon at NSRCC Kranji, but I yearn and try to golf at SICC more regularly so as to make my monthly subscriptions worth the while.

When the Old Course was re-opened recently after nearly 2 years of renovations, I discovered that I could book 9 holes of morning golf on Fridays (that is when my wife works from home and I have no chaufferring duties).  It was during one of those golf games that I got to know a Mr Lim Boh Chuan, and discovered that he is the LCEC Chairman of Faith Methodist Church! Mr Lim and I shared notes on Rev Reuben Ng, Rev Alvin Chan, Peter Koh, Barnabas Chong and Kow Shih Ming, all who somehow uncannily have connections to his church, either as ex-pastors or ex-DSes at some point in their pastoral careers.

Tomorrow, we will continue (and conclude) with Part 2 of the topic of buttressing bridges, whereby I will relate Incidents 4, 5, 6 and 7 so stay tuned!